Georgia Tech planning most environmentally conscious building in the Southeast

Georgia Tech’s sprawling campus on the western edge of Midtown is filled with hulking concrete and brick buildings dating to the 1960s, hearkening to the days when the school experienced rapid post-WWII expansion.

However, over the past few years, Tech has begun to push the envelope when it comes to design — and nowhere is that more apparent than the plans for the “Living Building.”

Announced last year, the project is an initiative by The Kendeda Fund and Tech to create what they hope to be the most environmentally friendly building in the Southeast.

Now, new details have been released illustrating how the building plans to achieve that goal. And some of the sustainable measures are pretty damn cool.

Features include a green roof, flexible auditorium that can be reconfigured to fulfill an array of needs, a canopy made of solar panels, and plantings around the site that will provide food for students throughout the year.

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The building will collect all the water needed to operate and store it in cisterns before use. Once the water is used, it will be processed on site, with the waste going to fertilize plants and irrigate the surrounding vegetation.

With classrooms, labs, maker spaces, offices, and loads of open collaboration zones, the building is meant to adapt to the changing needs of campus while teaching students about environmentally conscious design.

Designed by Seattle-based eco-design experts at The Miller Hull Partnership in collaboration with Atlanta-based Lord Aeck Sargent, the building should break ground by the end of the year.

Grid View

• Miller Hull via Kendeda
• Miller Hull via Kendeda
• Miller Hull via Kendeda

• Georgia Tech Building Takes Shape in Schematic Design [Kendeda Fund]
• New Architecture at Georgia Tech Changing Look of Campus [Curbed Atlanta]